Rotary ammunition belt feeder having a plurality of belt feed apertures



Feb. 6, 1968 H. MENNEKING 3,367,236

ROTARY AMMUNITION BELT FEEDER HAVING A'PLURALITY OF BELT FEED AFERTURESFiled May 16, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 In ven far: Hakimuz. Memzekbv Feb.6, 1968 H. MENNEKING 3,361,236

ROTARY AMMUNITION BELT FEEDER HAVING A PLURALITY OF BELT FEED APERTURESFiled May 16, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 y WJQ CME 0* W46;

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Feb. 6, 1968 MENNEKING 3,367,236

ROTARY AMMUNIT BELT FEEDER HAVING A PLURALITY OF BELT FEED APERTURESFiled May 16, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 5y 4 z//Qn,@ e wit United StatesPatent ()fiice 3,367,236 Patented Feb. 6, 1968 3,367,236 ROTARYAMMUNITION BELT FEEDER HAVING A PLURALITY F BELT FEED APERTURES HartmutMenneking, Dusseldorf, Germany, assignor to Firma Rheinmetall G.m.b.H.,Dusseldorf, Germany Filed May 16, 1966, Ser. No. 55%,479 Claimspriority, application Germany, May 18, 1965, R 40,658 4 Claims. (Cl.89--33) ABSTRACT OF THE DifitILUSURE An ammunition belt feeder for anautomatic weapon and having a housing with a movable feed sprocketmounted therein for an ammunition belt and an intermittently-operateddrive mechanism with a coupling for conmeeting and disconnecting thefeed sprocket and at least two belt feed apertures in the housing andthe direction of movement of the feed sprocket is constant.

The invention relates to an ammunition belt feeder withintermittently-driven feed sprocket for feeding cartridge ammunition inbelts to automatic weapons.

In order to press home an attack, in particular with automatic weaponshoused in armoured fighting vehicles, it is desired to be able to fireseveral different types of ammunition at will, and to be able to effecta change from one type of ammunition to another type in the shortestpossible time. Belt feeders for automatic weapons hitherto known,however, do not make possible a rapid change of ammunition of thetransition from a belt of one type of ammunition to another type, since,generally, they have only a single feed aperture for the introduction ofa belt, and it is possible to feed in ammunition from i one side only.Pulling out a belt which is in the belt feeder and re-introducinganother belt into the same feed aperture is therefore very tedious andtime-consuming and only possible with the aid of special tools.

A belt feeder for automatic weapons has already been proposed in whichit is possible to feed a belt in from two opposite sides of the feeder.The ammunition belts, however, require different belting, designated asleftor right-hand belting, and it is also necessary to exchangeswitching means in the belt feeder in order to transfer from lefttoright-hand feed.

The present invention avoids the disadvantages described above bycreating a belt feeder with which belts having dilferent types ofammunition can be fed to the Weapon in rapid succession by making itpossible to feed ammunition into the feeder from three sides, i.e. fromthe left, from the top and from the right, or when the weapon isinverted, from the right, from beneath and from the left.

An ammunition belt feeder according to the invention is characterised bythe fact that a feed sprocket for the belt is arranged in such a waywith respect to at least two, and preferably three, feed aperturesprovided in the housing of the belt feeder, and the housing is soconstructed, that with the feed sprocket constantly driven in the samedirection of rotation it is possible to feed an ammunition belt throughany one of the feed apertures at will.

A belt feeder according to the invention differs from those hithertoknown in that the transition from one type of ammunition to another orto the feeding of a belt in another feed aperture is possible withoutchanging the switching means in the belt feeder, without the use oftools, and without requiring different belting.

The feed sprocket is connected to the drive in a known manner by meansof a ratchet coupling and can be separated from the drive by actuationof a lever, 50 that an ammunition belt introduced through one of thefeed apertures can be pulled out of the belt feeder without any otheroperation. After the coupling has been reengaged, another belt with adifferent type of ammuni tion can be introduced into the same feedaperture or one of the other feed apertures. The different ammunitionbelts, which are all belted in the same direction, may be held at theready in the region of the feed apertures so that a change of ammunitioncan be effected in the shortest conceivable time. The housing of thebelt feeder can be either substantially rectangular or cylindrical inform and consist of pressed sheet-metal parts. With a substantiallyrectangular housing, the feed apertures are preferably arranged on threesides of the housing, i.e. on the left, on the right and opposite thecartridge ejection aperture.

In the region of the feed apertures, members are provided for guidingthe belt links and/or the cartridges of the cartridge belt beingintroduced. The arrangement of otherwise usual additional centeringdevices, which serve to straighten the cartridges accurately withrespect to the belt links and are generally fitted as special devices infront of the belt feeder, can therefore be omitted.

The feeding of the ammunition belts is further facilitated according toan advantageous sub-feature of the invention by providing the guidemembers on the outside of flaps which can be pivoted against springpressure into the belt feeder. The inner surface of the flaps may forman arc-shaped guide path for the cartridges of a belt introduced througha preceding feed aperture. An effective reinforcement of the guidemembers is thereby achieved, so that the latter can themselves consistof relatively thin sheet-metal plates which are connected, for exampleby spot-welding, to the flaps which are preferably also made ofsheet-metal.

By way of example only, an embodiment of the invention will now bedescribed in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawingsof which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section of the embodiment,

FIG. 2 is a cross-section thereof along the line II-II of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a pa1tial longitudinal section along the line IIIIII of FIG.2,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of two belt links of a cartridge belt,

FIG. 5 is a simplified cross-section along the line V-V of FIG. 1, and

PEG. 6 is a cross section showing ahousing of cylindrical form.

Numeral 1 represents the housing of a belt feeder for an automaticweapon, which is itself only partly shown in FIG. 1 and is indicated bybroken lines and numbered 2. The belt feeder has on three longitudinalsides, i.e. on the left, on the right and above-as seen in FIG. 2- feedapertures 3, 4 and 5 for the introduction of disintegrating cartridgebelts comprising links 6 and cartridges 7. The individual links 6 of thebelt are of known construction having an arc-shaped central claw 8 whichfits loosely round about /3 of the periphery of a cartridge, there beingalso two further claws 9 spaced from each other by a distancecorresponding approximately to the 3 width of the central claw 8, thefurther claws fitting more tightly round the adjacent cartridge. Thecartridges then form hinge pins for the belt links.

A feed sprocket formed of two star-wheels 10 intermittently conveys thecartridges in a cartridge belt int-roduced into the feed aperture 3towards the weapon 2 where they are pushed out of the belt by a lug 11situated on a reciprocating bolt and into the weapon through a frontaperture 12. To accommodate the lug 11, the housing has a slot 12 on theside nearest the weapon.

The housing of the belt feeder may be rectangular as in FIG. 2 orcylindrical as in FIG. 6.

The method of operation of the belt feeder is as follows:

The two star-wheels 10 are mounted on a common hub 13 which is rotatablysupported in an end wall 14 of the belt in a recess of a bearing member16 attached to the end wall and in a second end wall 15 in a bearingsleeve 15 provided on the latter. The drive of the belt feeder can beeffected by means of the recoil of the weapon or by output of gas fromthe barrel. By means of a suitable transmission means (lever orgas-operated piston) a rotary movement in the direction of the arrow(FIG. is imparted to a spring drum 17 mounted in the feeder bysubjecting to pressure in the direction of the arrow a cam 26 situatedon the outside of the spring drum. In that way the feed star wheels areadvanced by one step via pinions 18, 19. The intermittent feed iseffected via a ratchet coupling 20 which couples the pinion 19 with acoupling sleeve 21 arranged non-rotatably but resiliently displaceablein a longitudinal direction in the hub 13. The coupling sleeve 21 has apinion-toothed section 21. The spring drum 17 is supported on a spindle22 fixed in the end wall so that it can rotate, to an extent which isdetermined by stops 23 and 24, against the tension of a spiral spring25. The inner end of the spring 25 is attached to the spindle 22 whilethe outer end of the spring is fixed to the spring drum 17.

Whilst the ratchet coupling serves as a feed coupling, a second ratchetcoupling 27 acts as a retaining coupling. A coupling sleeve 30associated with coupling 27 is guided in the bearing member 16 by meansof pinion-toothed section 30 so that it is n0n-rotatable but islongitudinally displaceable. The coupling sleeves 21 and 30 are heldconstantly in engagement with the ratchet couplings by means of springs31 and 32 respectively. The star wheels 10, advanced by one step, arethus held fast whilst the spring drum returns to its initial position.The ratchet couplings 20 and 27 are thus effected in opposite directionsof rotation. Both couplings can be disengaged by means of a releaselever 28 pivotably mounted on the bearing member 16 so that the starwheels 10 are thereby rendered freely rotatable and a belt can be pulledout of the belt feeder.

By actuation of the lever 28 in the direction of the arrow a (FIG. 1) acoupling rod 29 guided inside the hub 13 is displaced, whereby thecoupling sleeves 21 and 30 of the ratchet couplings 20 and 27 aredisengaged. After the lever 28 is released, it returns automaticallyunder the pressure of the coupling springs 3-1 and 3-2 to its initialposition and both ratchet couplings are again locked in place. Withoutany further operations, another ammunition belt can now be introducedinto one of the feed apertures 3, 4 or 5.

In the region of the feed aperture 3, guide members are provided bymeans of which the belt links are guided centrally between the starwheels 10. For this purpose, two spaced guide edges 33 are provided(FIG. 2) between which the belt claws 9 are fed to the star wheels 10,the claws sliding on their outer rims 9 along the edges 33. In addition,spring-biased retainers 34 are provided which reach into the feedaperture 3 and act on the ends 9" of the first belt link. The retainersare then pushed up by the first cartridge of the belt. The retainers 34therefore only effect the proper introduction of the first belt link,which contains no cartridge.

The belt is pushed into the belt feeder until the first cartridge issituated over the slot 12'. In this position two levers 35 and 35,spring biased in a direction opposite to the rotation of the feed starwheel, fit against the cartridge case. The cartridge can now be pushedout by means of the lug 11 (FIG. 1) and the belt link is stripped fromthe cartridge against the edge of the lever 35 and the feed star wheel10.

In the region of the feed apertures 4 and 5, guide members are providedwhich can be pivoted into the inside of the belt feeder. These guidingmembers consist, in each case, of a flap 36, which is held in theposition shown in FIG. 2 by means of a spring 38 wound round the pivotalaxis 37 of the flap. The flap, made of sheet-metal, forms with its innersurface an arc-shaped guide path for the cartridges of a cartridge beltintroduced through one of the preceding feed apertures. Externally, theflaps have guide edges 39 between which the rims 9" of the belt linksare guided when a belt is introduced through one of the said feedapertures. The flap is thereby pivoted by the belt claws 9 into theinside of the belt feeder, between the feed star wheels 10.

In order also to be able to fire belt ammunition held at the ready inmagazines, connecting means 40 are provided in the region of the feedaperture 5 for receiving a belt magazine.

I claim:

1. An ammunition belt feeder for an automatic weapon comprising incombination, a housing, a movable feed sprocket mounted in said housingfor advancing an ammunition belt through the feeder, anintermittently-operated drive mechanism, a coupling for connecting anddisconnecting said feed sprocket and said drive mechanism, at least twobelt feed apertures in said housing adjacent said feed sprocket forguiding ammunition belts to said feed sprocket and positioned relativelyto the latter in such manner that the direction of movement of the feedsprocket is constant irrespective of which feed aperture is employed toguide a belt to the feed sprocket, guide members on said housingadjacent said feed apertures for guiding cartridges in a belt, and meansfor resiliently supporting the guide members in a plane normal to thatof a belt when in the feeder, and the guide members being spring-biasedflaps pivotally mounted upon the housing and pivotable against saidspring-biasing into the interior of said housing, said flaps also havinga surface forming an arc-shaped guide path for cartridges of a belt fedinto the housing by a preceding feed aperture.

2. A belt feeder as claimed in claim 1 in which said housing is ofrectangular transverse cross-section and has belt feed apertures onthree of its sides.

3. A belt feeder as claimed in claim 1 and further comp-rising a housingof cylindrical form and having a cartridge aperture therein and aplurality of feed apertures spaced at regular intervals round thehousing with respect to said cartridge aperture.

4. An ammunition belt feeder for an automatic weapon comprising incombination, a housing, a movable feed sprocket mounted in said housingfor advancing an ammunition belt through the feeder, anintermittently-operated drive mechanism, a coupling for connecting anddisconnecting said feed sprocket and said drive mechanism, at least twobelt feed apertures in said housing adjacent said feed sprocket forguiding ammunition belts to said feed sprocket and positioned relativelyto the latter in such manner that the direction of movement of the feedsprocket is constant irrespective of which feed aperture is employed toguide a belt to the feed sprocket, guide members on said housingadjacent said feed apertures for guiding cartridges in a belt, and meansfor resiliently supporting the guide members in a plane normal to thatof a belt when in the feeder, said guide members being springloadedlevers.

(References on following page 5 6 References Cited 2,766,663 10/1956Dixon 8933 Starry 2 5/1947 Gilbert 89 33X 3,2 9,584 1/1966 zehnder 89 333413 g g 5 BENJAMIN A. BOROHELT, Primary Examiner. an or w er et a1 S.Assistant Exammel

